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NC Clergy Fight for First Amendment Right

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Wednesday, April 30, 2014   

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - Dozens of clergy members and their congregants in North Carolina are taking a First Amendment fight from the pulpit to the courtroom. Together, they filed a lawsuit this week in federal court, challenging the constitutionality of North Carolina's marriage laws.

At issue is Amendment 1, which bans marriage between same-sex couples. The Rev. Joe Hoffman at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Asheville, said he hasn't signed a state marriage license in eight years - and explained why.

"What I was basically doing was participating in a very discriminatory system," he said. "I got clear on that and I just decided at that point that until I could do it for everybody in the congregation, I would no longer legally marry anybody."

Legal experts say the lawsuit offers a new perspective in marriage-equality litigation. According to the Campaign for Southern Equality, it's the only case to claim a violation of religious freedom among the 66 marriage-equality cases pending in the nation.

Last Sunday, Cathy McGaughey proposed to her partner of 14 years at Hoffman's church. She said it's a religious leader's right to refuse to marry same-sex couples but thinks the state law should support members of the clergy who want to perform these ceremonies.

"So, we're not saying that other people necessarily have to agree with what we want to do, but it's important to us to be able to be married in our church," she said. "And other churches many not support that, and that's fine."

It's technically a misdemeanor in North Carolina to perform a marriage that can't also be legally recognized. In that sense, Hoffman said current North Carolina law forces clergy to either break the law or deny a religious rite of passage to their congregants.

"I am not allowed to do what my faith tradition not only invites me to do but calls and expects me to do," he said, "and that is to offer religious services to all my people."

Recent polling in North Carolina from Public Policy Polling shows 62 percent of voters younger than age 30 support the freedom to marry. But 34 percent believe there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple's relationship.

A video of the news conference can be viewed online at vimeo.com.

Reporting for this story by North Carolina News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest. Media in the Public Interest is funded in part by Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.


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